Load

Official music videos:
- Until It Sleeps
- King Nothing
- Hero of the Day
- Mama Said

Load featured a new Metallica logo, and a new "4M Star" logo. US singles released were "Until It Sleeps", "Hero of the Day", and "King Nothing".

Metallica had originally wanted to release Load as a double album. This plan was scrapped because of problems recording so many songs at one time, so as a result, Metallica decided release half of the songs on this album and the rest on Reload, which would eventually be released 17 months later.

Kirk Hammett mentioned in an interview that he had a title in mind for this album, which was "The Delicate Sounds of Metallica".

The cover of the album is original artwork entitled ''Semen and Blood III''. It is one of three photographic studies by Andres Serrano created in 1990 by mingling the artist's own semen and bovine blood between two sheets of Plexiglass.

James Hetfield says that in "Ain't My Bitch" when he says the word "bitch" he is not referring to a woman or a whore, but rather to a problem.

The title "2x4" refers to a piece of wood with those measurements. Lyrically, James Hetfield dedicates them to the envious women who speak behind him.

"Until It Sleeps" talks about the mother of James Hetfield, who died of cancer when James was 16 years old.
The demo version of this song was titled "F.O.B.D.", inspired by the Soundgarden song "Fell on Black Days", even sounding quite similar to the Soundgarden song. This demo appears as a b-side to the single "Until It Sleeps".

The final verse of "King Nothing" is a reference to the song "Enter Sandman" from his previous self-titled album (known as the Black Album).

"Wasting My Hate" is about an anecdote that happened to James Hetfield. While James was with a friend in his dining room, James's friend sees a guy in a car looking at them from outside, and the friend, when confronting him, realizes that the guy was really sleeping. Upon returning, James asked him what had happened, and he replied "the one in the car was sleeping, and I wasted my hate."

"The Outlaw Torn" was originally 10:48 in length, but had to be edited out to make it on the record. The full extended version can be found on the single "The Memory Remains" from their follow-up album Reload (1997).

Recording information:

Recorded at The Plant Studios, Sausalito, California at various points in time between May '95 & February '96.
Additional recording at Right Track Recording, New York.
Mixed at Right Track Recording, New York, March-April '96.
Additional mixing at Quad Recording Studios, New York.
Mastered at Sterling Sound.

Identifiers:

Barcode: 0 7559-61923-2 3
Matrix / Runout (Variant 1): 2 61923-2 RE-2 SRC+02 M1S9
Matrix / Runout (Variant 2): 2 61923-2 RE-2 SRC+02 M1S15
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Matrix / Runout (Variant 4): 2 61923-2 RE-2 SRC+02 *M4 S5
Matrix / Runout (Variant 5): 2 61923-2 RE-2 SRC+02 *M5 S2
Matrix / Runout (Variant 6): 2 61923-2 RE-2 SRC+02 *M5S3
Matrix / Runout (Variant 7): 2 61923-2 RE-2 SRC+02 *M6 S2
Matrix / Runout (Variant 8): X20815 2 61923-2 RE-2 08 M1S7
Matrix / Runout (Variant 9): L383 A 5531 2461923 E70702-07
Matrix / Runout (Variant 10): Y16323 2 61923-2 RE-2 06 M3S4 WEA mfg OLYPHANT
Mastering SID Code (Variant 8): IFPI L902
Mastering SID Code (Variant 9): IFPI L383
Mould SID Code (Variant 1): IFPI 2U3P
Mould SID Code (Variant 2): IFPI 2U3X
Mould SID Code (Variant 4): IFPI 2V2I
Mould SID Code (Variant 6): IFPI 2U3E
Mould SID Code (Variant 7): IFPI 2V1P
Mould SID Code (Variant 8): IFPI 2U9C
Mould SID Code (Variant 9): IFPI 6100